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Absurd philosophy in the novel Aylak Adam by Yusuf Atlgan and in the novel the Stranger by Albert Camus: alienation, doubt, loneliness, giving the subject the prime place and search for identity
Hilmi UAN *
Abstract Socialist realism was the reigning understanding of art in the 1950s in Turkey. This understanding was the reection of Marxist ideology onto the art. In other words, those artists holding this ideology were of the opinion that art is for society and they aim at putting the art at the societys service; thus doing good for the people. This understanding which is studied as Rural ction1 from the thematic point of view had an inuence between the years 1950-1960. The novel Aylak Adam by Yusuf Atlgan was the one published at this period in 1959. However, Yusuf Atlgans novel Aylak Adam differs from the novels of socialist realism of that period both from its narrative technique and from its thematic structure. Aylak Adam is not the kind of novel that asserts any specic thesis which governs the period the author lived. In this novel the question of westernization which is the leading line in Turkish literature, is not taken into consideration. With this novel by Atlgan, the description of the subjects inner world can be said to have started in novel in Turkish narrative. With this novel, a new era began on interpreting the modernist world and the study of modern mans depression. Aylak Adam is the fore and foremost step, a kind of introduction to the transition of the postmodern ction in Turkish literature. Aylak Adam as a novel is an introduction to the questioning of the identity of a person; his/her existence, loneliness and alienation. It is a novel that signies a return to the subject. In this context it shares some similar points with the novel the Stranger by Albert Camus. The novel Aylak Adam largely benets from Albert Camus from the philosophical point of view. The novel the Stranger is also the novel that questions man, state of human, society and the man in the society. Both novels are pessimistic and consist of criticism of the society, a revolt and antagonism.

* Afyonkarahisar Kocatepe University

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he aesthetical understanding from Aristotheles to Proust has not presented too much difference. Marcel Proust is a pioneer writer that changed the traditional narrative techniques. These kinds of narratives typically consist of an introductory part,a main part and a nal one. The reader does not nd himself at a loss to understand this narrative technique and narration is chronological. The character of the novel or of the story happens to appear, born, grows up and dies; then he wins a victory or loses a ght. In these kinds of narratives there is a vast birds eye view without limit, there is a narrator who has a divine power of vision for everything, he is omniscient of every thing. This was a world of an understanding of art in which visuality, sensuality and determinism took a dominant place. () In these traditional narratives the reader enjoys an easy and comfortable reading of stories which have a thorough and certain cause-effect relation with apparent startings and ends in a closed structure. Reader is not short of any information about the world depicted in the novel2. Namely, this world of novel is a familiar world to the reader; it witnesses, depicts the ideal one or as naturalists do, talks about the things which are concrete. Proust and the writers after his period attempt to make psychological analyses about the mans inner world. For these writers it is now time to narrate subjects inner world, not to witness the outer world. In Prousts novel there is a narrator who uses I rst person language. Prousts work (with the exception of Swans Amour) was written solely in the rst person singular3. Proust sets up a narrative through inner space rather than the outer space. This inner space is comprised both of past and present. According to Proust, life is conned to I; Life is within I, it is not out of I 4. On the other hand, J.P.Sartre and Albert Camus, backed by philosophy, observes mans existence, his freedom, slavery, his reactions against life and death and they question the alienation of individuals; they try to signify the man, universe and the life. They propose that man should act considering their own selves rather than behave with regards of other people. Both novelists assert that the hell; this means others5. In the narrative after Proust the use of time changes and hence deterministic reasoning is not employed any more. It is now time to use one day, one week or even a short-time narrations with present time, with retrospections and jumping forth to the present and future type of narrations take the place of chronological narrations. Readers are called on to think and make comments on what they read and are invited to make signications. The reader is asked to pay attention to language tricks. Just next to this eld, postmodern narratives would take place. The divine view would lend its place to a limited view with an outer vision. A new but cold and frozen discourse type, which narrates possibilities rather than absolute reality; blended with numerous language tricks

Introduction

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and abundant intertextuality on the reader as the sole and absolute reality. Reader would not be forced to accept the words as absolute and never-changing truth. This new type of narration would allow readers to notice a viewpoint holding doubts at the summit, a viewpoint that has no denitive truth. It is such that the most inuential representative of postmodernism on the philosophical ground Nietzsche would believe in nothingness, Roland Barthes, a pioneer and a leading name of structuralist understanding, would point out language and discourse and would talk about neutral man, an impartial writing, or rather a white writing6. And again R.Barthes and M.Foucault would mention of the writers death, trying to oust out the sacredness of literature and the writer.In todays postmodern narratives it is seen that, rather than social elements, individualistic ones are articulated. Now, a subject with no clear-cut truths and judgments is on agenda; a subject that seeks coherence between its contradictions and differences. It is possible to make a relative classication on aesthetic formations in western literature: A traditional narrative from Aristotheles to Proust that holds the ideal one; a postmodern narrative that starts with Proust extends until the time of Kafka dealing with the things which are concrete; a postmodern narrative extends from Kafka up the present time. Turkish literature also keeps the same line in Turkish literature. Narrative techniques that starts with Ahmet Mithat in a western sense can relatively be classied as such: A classical narrative that depicts what should be the ideal. This kind of narration as in Ak-I Memnu by Halit Ziya Uaklgil puts the literature at moral values disposal, a modern narrative that depicts concrete things. This narrative style starts with Halit Ziya and lasts until Yusuf Atlgan. With Yusuf Atlgan, a postmodern narrative that questions, criticizes and depicts the probabilities and continues with Ouz Atay until the present time. Towards the end of 1950s, in Turkish literature, following the socialist reality gained popularity and rural novels were published one after another. Representatives of this narrative trend are Samim Kocagz, Kemal Bilbaar, Sabahattin Ali, Orhan Kemal, Yaar Kemal, Kemal Tahir etc Aylak Adam was published in 1959. Unlike what was fashionable until its time, countryman and countryside are not the subject matter any more in this book, but instead urban intellectual man and his problems are dealt with. The individual takes the prime place and the inner reality is studied rather than the outer reality by Yusuf Atlgan and his predecessors. Although Aylak Adam carries some characteristics of former traditional novels, it differs from them from thematic and ctive points of view as well as its ctional characters. It points out a different theme and perspective; it gives the rst signs of a postmodern narrative. Aylak Adam is also a starting point of a history that leads to the novel Tutunamayanlar (The Disconnected) by Ouz Atay whose work is reported as the rst postmodern novel. Aylak Adam has nothing to do with the agenda of socialist realists. Aylak

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Adams character C. seeks a completely different agenda: He is after a real love; he seeks a woman with whom he could nd happiness. Until Yusuf Atlgan there is not too much change in the narration techniques in Turkish literature. An omniscient narrator pictures ow of events. However, just before Yusuf Atlgan, A.Hamdi Tanpnar, too, in his novel Huzur tries to make use of a different narrative technique, a different use of time, self-questioning and responsibility But in Huzur published in1949, the leading character, Mmtaz, has a sense of responsibility and self questioning and this is not an individual one. This is for the cause of civilization. Mmtaz has a woman he loves and she has certain qualities: Her name is Nuran. On the other hand in Aylak Adam, the leading character C. is in search of a woman he could love. He cannot nd her. Mmtaz enjoys some values, tastes and for him there are certain things and values which he can never give up or give away7. By contrast, in Aylak Adam, almost everything is evil; there is nothing good. There is a depression; there is a search; a search of an individual love. In traditional narrations there happens to be a hero with a long term impression on the readers mind through his/her name, body and soul. But, In the novel Aylak iAdam the hero doesnt even have full name, just the letter C. The woman he is looking for is called B. Yusuf Atlgan is one of the rst writers who employs the individual in place of the hero8. Kafka; one of the pioneering names of postmodern novels, in his work, The Trial and The Castle, names the subject by a single letter, too: K. In Aylak Adam C., is a subject, not a hero found in classical and modern narratives. He is a subject that has individual worries and anxieties. A. Camus and Sartre set out from existentialism. Absurd philosophy and existentialism are observed in both writers. Absurd philosophy in Sartre has ontological character. () As for the Camus absurd philosophy has psychological and anthropological aspects9. In other words, both writers concentrate on the question of being. Sartre takes this matter as a question of creation and existence and he considers man as a creature thrown away down onto the earth. But Camus deals with the man by his interaction with his natural and social surrounding, and he voices the absurdity of life. The literature created around this philosophy is, at the same time, literature of depression and anxiety. A. Camus is not only stuck up to absurd philosophy but he goes further up to the Revolt. He says: I was about to think a third stratum around the love theme after revolt10. But his life falls short of that. Turkish literature, during some period especialy in 1950s and 1960s, was under inuence of existentialism, absurd philosophy and Freud. The subject of Aylak Adam C., associates with Meursault from A.Camus novel The Stranger. Both Aylak Adams and The Strangers subjects C. and Meursault are nonconformist and incoherent characters in their social surroundings. In both of the novels social life style and moral understanding of bourgeoisie are criticized.

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With the novel Aylak Adam by Yusuf Atlgan there starts to be a literature of questioning and anxiety. After Atlgan, a type of narrative, which begins to question individuals being; nds life absurd or goes against the monotony of life that goes around comes into being Ouz Atay in 1970s follows the example of Yusuf Atlgans Aylak Adam and creates the novel Tutunamayanlar (the Disconnected), which is regarded as the rst postmodern novel in Turkish literature. In this article, we are aiming at studying perspectives of Yusuf Atlgan and A. Camus and the common points in voicing their feelings and ideas. While doing this, we will consider all their works, but for the sake of limiting the corpus well be concentrating more on Yusuf Atlgans Aylak Adam (the Idle Man) and A.Camus The Stranger rather than their other works. Narrative Level The novel Aylak Adam is composed of four parts: Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. In Aylak Adam there is a subject who is named in a single letter C. The subject is not pleased with his life. What the subject tries to reach is a love, a true love. But this novel is not a novel of love when considered from the classical point of view. In the narrative events that C. lives through in a year are revealed. He experiences two love affaires in that year. The rst one is with a university student, Gler, a plane and simple-minded person. The second one is with Aye, an artist with a peculiar personality. C. doesnt work and he lives on the rental from the buildings he has inherited from his father. In a way he leads an idle and bohemian life. He spends his full day reading books, strolling in the streets, going to cafes and watching lms. The subject in the novel is out of temper, shy, idle, unhappy. He is a man in search of happiness but to no avail. The main character in the novel C. seeks a woman all through the book. He has relations with Laura, Aye and Gler. He also symbolizes the woman he seeks in a single letter B. But he would never meet this woman. Everybody is looking for a stronghold for his life: Some sticks to wealth; some holds on to his managerial status; some to his work and art. There are those who see their children as a means of living11. What the subject of the novel longs for as a stronghold is to nd a true love. He says: I am searching for the only stronghold which is not ridiculous since I have seen hypocrisy, false and ridiculous sides of values in the society. A true love12. Both at the beginning phase and at the end the subject is away from his object. Senders of both Aylak Adams C. and Meursault are in search for love and identity in their inner world. The handicaps

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are society and social setting in which they live. In the rst chapter, that is in winter, the subject of the narrative lives in an apartment at alone. Economically he suffers no hardships. He has got a housemaid called Eleni and lawyer. His lawyer deals with the rentals. In return for his services he lives in one of C.s ats free of charge. In this chapter mostly the subjects problems and his attempts to look for a way out are depicted. In the spring the subjects relation with Gler, a student of Faculty of letters, is told. The subject C. is at a summerhouse. He stays at a summerhouse hired by his lawyer. This relation also ends with separation. Events in the last part, in autumn, take place in the space outlined in the beginning part of the novel. The subject cannot nd the very woman and love he desires to. The novel ends with these words: He kept silent. It was no use speaking. He would never again speak of her to anybody13. In the novel The Stranger by A.Camus, the subject tries to signify the world, in a sense tries to make it meaningful. He criticizes the world which he cannot understand, the people and the events. He cannot understand the nature of the world both in the beginning and the last part of the novel; in both cases he is apart from his object: The relations between people are purely false and just pretensions, the life being lived is absurd, and is far from being straightforward. The subject of The Stranger would say: Life is something not worthy of living. It was not that I was unaware of the fact that there was no difference between dying at the age of thirty or seventy14. In both of the novel there is not a vivid pattern of events which is a characteristic of classical narratives that presents daily events without any exaggeration as if there is nothing that happens. Discourse Level Dire consequences of the two world wars, economic problems, uncurbed human ambitions and lack of love had a great inuence on the twentieth century people. Humanity at times has suffered a great depression, become anxious about his future and has tended to redene and signify the world again. In French literature, the literary works that go under a separate title The Period between the two Wars, a literature of anxiety and the philosophical outcomes are all the indicatives of the above mentioned course. Turkish literature is also deeply inuenced by these ups and downs in the same way as Western literature. From time to time it unreasonably tries to closely imitate the West and hence, experiences a conict between the values it has adopted from the west and those of its own society. The most important line in Turkish literature is the conict of East-West. Up to the time of Aylak Adam this conict has been densely experienced and exploited almost to the degree

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of suffering or pain: Alongwith this point appears a literary movement created through novels on the war of Turkish independence, on women during the war of independence, on formation of a new post-war order and reinforcement of this period. But this conict doesnt occupy the agenda in Aylak Adam. In Aylak Adam the troubles and worries of individual in a world where there is no true love are depicted. There are also no propositions to the solutions of these problems. Western man seems to experience this kind of conict as well. He speculates on the causes of the depression; he tries to realize the nature of his anxiety and redenes the status of an individual. This questioning is voiced in poetry by P. Valry, A.Breton; in ction by M. Proust, A. Gide, A. Malraux, S. Exupry, J.P. Sartre and Albert Camus; and later this questioning would be pursued by Ionesco and Beckett in theatrical works. Of these writers A. Camus creates a philosophy out of inner conicts of individual and his non-conformism with his surrounding. A. Camus studies individuals above mentioned problems in many of his works. The myth of Sisyphus is a theoretical explanation of absurd philosophy. The novel the Stranger is thus the application of this philosophy in life. There are great similarities between the head characters of the Stranger, Meursault and of Aylak Adam, C. That is to say, both characters in both of the novels are the non-conformists; antagonists. They do the contrary to what has been suggested to. They are in constant state of uneasiness in the society. In Aylak Adam the subject doesnt voice his ideas loudly; he tends to do a silent talk just whispering to himself. Intensive monologue exists in the novel. The head character in Aylak Adam tends to feel, think, gets surprised and is amazed. But all these things just happen in the memory and ends there. The tumult that he feels in himself is not reected out so much. Meursault, too, is not a chief character who speaks out and is not a problem-solving subject. For him, the world that an individual lives in is an absurd world. C. in Aylak Adam considers the order and life absurd because It causes one to lose what he has found after a long standing search, at the very moment he has only found15. C. in Aylak Adam and Meursault in the Stranger are afraid of getting used to. They dont like to do what everybody does. Meursault expresses himself in words as such were I conned into a body of a died out tree and I had no choice other than looking at the sky over my head, I would be up to get used to it () In fact this was what my mom used to think. She would say man is inclined to get used to and she would repeatedly say that16. The subject of Aylak Adam thinks in the similar way: His father used to say work makes one forget about the worries17. But C. doesnt like this kind of means to console himself. It was the kind of routine work that they call a work: To write, to give a lecture, to use a hammer; all in the same repetitive mode. Even the driver who blows the horn differently; the blacksmith who handles his hammer would repeat himself the

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other day. The aim of life was just habit-forming. It was to conform with18. As descibed in above lines, Meursault does not like to act in the same way as other people do around. C. humiliates people who are conformists; and labels them as shoppinglovers and parcel-holders. He looks down on them just because they solely do not have any bit of urge to look for new things. They do not have any worries. Those holding parcels in their hands are people of easy life. They like comfort and are after a monotonous life. They do not ask anything more than a house with three rooms and a kitchen, they are just happy with their children; one boy and a girl. Towards the end of the day they would just be happy if they can return home with some parcels in their hands. This state of holding parcels is evergoing comfort of what has been accustomed to19. It is a state of being able to fall asleep without any toil in the mind; that is- easy days on end. Being in a state of holding parcels is an attribute of those people who seek to have the same things, who identify with each other in the way as to seek comfort and easy life. Charlie Chaplin creates the term easy street to denote the street where these people live. In the similar way the subject of Aylak Adam has got the term parcel-holders20 street to meet the same meaning. The woman named Gler was of the same nature with the people of parcel holder. This woman could only expect of life a beloved man, a house with 3 rooms and a kitchen, two children; one boy and a girl. In these kinds of houses household things are dearer than the people in them. The houses are full of furniture and utensils rather than people. C. leaves Gler since, this girl wants to turn me into a parcel holder21. He leaves Gler. C. fears to be involved in getting used to being ordinary. For him, when a man becomes a man of habits, he would then live in accordance with the wishes of others. He would not be his-self. People act in the same monotonous way just because they are made to comply with the habits. It is such that these habits govern the individual without even being conscious22. The subjects C. and Meursault are the characters who go against being stereotype persons. They do not want to be like others. Both are dissents and aliens in the society. Both C. and Meursault do not play the game according to its rules. Concealing their feelings, they both do not like to speak. C. does not like to be in disguise. He hates pretensions of being and looking kind while in fact he is not. He does not like women epilating their eyebrows and having a make-up on their faces, swinging shoulder bags, high-heeled shoes. If only a woman broke her heels and walked down on her bare feet, she would be more a woman and be freed from would-be manners23. Aye, about whom C. once asked to himself, is that the woman I am after, confesses: I cannot escape from being a tourist , in no way, whatever I do. You understand me, tourist! A feeling of falseness and temporariness24. The subject C. , just because of false manners and feigning behaviors, does not like beggars and waiters. He mentions of a waiter who wears

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a false smile and a black bow tie25. A beggar, in the same way is not different from the waiter. In his own street C. observes a beggar: Looking sideways with his cigarette hidden in his palm, then inhaling the cigarette blowing the smoke down. () Sly man was the beggar26. The beggar has a mechanism of work based on deceiving people, sly, and even has regular working hours and a style of setting to work as a grocer starting the day unlocking the shop door.27. According to the main theme absurd philosophy in most of A.Camus works people are in futile repetition of doing the same things everyday. They nd disguises for their feelings and emotions. They just pretend to be Meursault in The Stranger is not also happy with his life. He complains of going to the ofce and back home again everyday. He hates to repeat doing the same things, and sleeping. For C., people are egoists; events are awe inspiring, gloomy. Everybody is in constant individual haste. They think of themselves even while reading. One more thing that the subject C. can not understand is why on earth they (the men) read papers everyday! Why should they read to let their heart collapse every morning? () Or do they read disaster news on the other side of the city, Fatih quarter in the papers; only to feel happy to say Oh thanks God! My house is not on re!28 as they see the headline like, TWO HOUSES BURN DOWN IN FATIH. Newspapers and journalists in the same way have no positive connotations in The Stranger. A journalist in a talk tells Meursault: Do you know we have exaggerated your case for it is a dead season for us in summer29. In Cs mind, everybody desires not a job that is suitable for his talents but a job that inspires respect among the people; a fashionable one to be of a highstatus Finance man, a bank manager30; pretend to be somebody else. The C. of Aylak Adam says: Twentieth century. Asphalt and vomiting. Thickish nylon, and articial daylights of neons31. C. is a personality that neither to himself nor to the others he could lie. He looks like nobody in the society in manners. Therefore, he is alone; with a pessimistic character. Nobody has a sense of trust in others in the society he lives in. Even in loves, there is nothing but self-interests and business-like attitudes. Even among the married couples the relations cannot go further than sexual relations. As a reply to Glers question why are you so pessimistic?, the answer of C. of Aylak Adam is: Why are you not?32. Meursault tries to behave as he is. He does not lie even when he is about to be executed. He is also of a personality quite a weird and non-conformist person. For him, people have ill-intentions, hypocrytic and they are not cordial. A.Camus is so pessimist as to say in his last novel The Fall (La Chute) : Monkeys, at last, do not have ill intentions Just the day after his fathers death C., begins to laugh, which is contrary to the traditional practices. On seeing this, Feyyaz, C.s friend, blame on him saying Hell with him, father dies and he smiles33. Meursault in the same way is criticized just because he has coffee, smokes and goes to the cinema with his

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sweetheart just after his mothers death. He is sentenced to death, in a way, not seemingly because he has killed the Arab, but because he has acted in opposing manners to the tradition in the case of his mothers death. In the broadest sense of the term, the discourse is an enunciation, an act of saying and writing. () If so, discourse is an action. This performative character is either to convince, to advice, to inspire, to inform, to celebrate, to blame, to teach or to calm somebody down34. The man producing the text may just be aiming at gaining acceptance, suggesting an ideology or just be depicting his feelings and ideas with no exaggeration. While performing all these he has certain manners of using the language and discourse type. The discourse type of a writer is the type of that writers self-statement. Discourse is a structure that is created in the language. A writer differentiates himself from the others through his own discourse type. Aylak Adam by Yusuf Atlgan and The Stranger by A. Camus have a plain language, and direct discourse type. Atlgan makes use of a language which carries no exaggeration, no simile, a language almost void of any wealth, () Language is not the one that absorbs and stores a new linguistic material but the one that uses prolonged expressions, intrigue ideas on end... The language is not open-ended but just closed and exact; short and it travels back on the same sentence after a while35. They give the impression to the reader that the writer just hastens to nish sentences or make a short cut on them. Some utterrances are repeated at regular intervals in the novel. These utterances are the statement of either a love or a hate. He scratched his left earlobe is repeated 18 times in differet pages (p. 15, 16, 31, 39, 40, 42, 55, 60, 77, 96, 103, 106, 108, 114, 116, 133, 142). The subject C. of Aylak Adam does not like his father. Because in his childhood father tears his ear. When he is bored or when he is angry he scratches his ear. In the same way in many instances in the novel the subject C. puts out his cigarette down on the ash-tray strongly. The color blue with a positive connotation repeatedly takes place in the novel. The eyes of his aunt and his mother are blue. He loves his aunt and mother who died when he was just a year old. He transfers all his love to his aunt for he has never really seen his mother. All shades of blue remind him of his aunt. The woman he could love should also have blue eyes. The color Blue and a Moustache are xed-ideas of the subject: These are the symbols of his likes and dislikes. He loves aunt Zehra, the color blue, just because Zehra has blue eyes. He does not like his father; he has got a moustache and a relation with his aunt Zehra. He does not even like those with moustache. When he talks of someone he does not like, he would explain: he wears moustache. An ant and a trafc police, too, create a leitmotif a leading motive. Ants and trafc police ofcers are the images of monotonously repeated forms of life. Similar to ants and trafc police ofcers, people, too, repeat the usual course of work. Both ants and trafc police ofcers repeat themselves. Ants love with no

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conscious attention36. Even a owing trafc symbolizes the monotonous goingon. Police is blowing whistle to direct the trafc, pointing with his stick of the directions; cars and trams passing by in their orderly ways without any clash37. All people are alike; their routines in life are the same. Both men and their lives are like identical twins; as if out of the same world. People cannot help without conforming to these stereotypical behavior an ideas38. These descriptions overlap with the absurd philosophy in the Stranger. Meursault, too, is critical of doing these repetitive things and nds life absurd. The leitmotif technique in the narrative forms a kind of likeness and steadiness; It creates a kind of discourse type that descibes the boredom in a daily life, the similarities, and habits more vividly. It is such that in same places in the novel letters, sentences, and the buildings are depicted one after another in a successive mode altogether: A Vista of Cypress Trees; a street you could just walk down until the end but you cannot ever nd a single cypress tree; full of asphalt. Buildings on top of another, hordes of cars and a-huge-group-of-fastwalking people39. In Aylak Adam, the linguistic time does not change a lot. It is almost the same. Sentences are short and sometimes they are one-word sentences. There is an intense use of past time mood in the narrative: Understood. I waited. Didnt turn up. Looked at the watch. Would be a different night. They stood up to leave. Lets pass on. Felt OK.40 are randomly chosen sentences from Aylak Adam. In The Stranger, in the same way, there are short sentences and an intense use of past-time: My mom died today. Didnt answer. Anyway I was not obliged to apologise. Beaten me. But he wasnt hungry.41. In both novels past tense forms of a frozen reality, an indication of a non-owing time are observed. With the use of this past time modal, an action told gives one the impression that it is happening in present time however it took place in the past. () Use of this kind of time-modal enables the reader to feel that events are taking place in present-time. Thus the presentation of the time-line by the writer coincides with that of readers in present time42. The reader is made, by the use of narration in the past-time, to feel deeply the thematic stress and C.s anxieties in the novel. The text producer has no intention to create a pompous course. In the novel there is a kind of syntactic structure as if to imply the very truth will never be told. There is a short, broken rhythm, a rhythm of a heavy load of boredom. Atlgan seems to put this language to the service of this rhythm; he successfully vividify in his sentences the worry and the depression by using such a tune of language in recurrent piece of language at proper intervals43. Atlgans sentences are just the informing ones. They are not the kind of sentences that remind the reader of any writer behind the lines44. The language, in the novel The Stranger by A.Camus, undertakes the function of creating this inner uneasiness and the absurd. In the rst part of the

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novel, the language consummates itself in degree when Meursault kills the Arab: This time the Arab pulled his knife without any attempt to get up, showed to me glittering in the sun. A shining steel reaching up to my forehead was a reminder of a long and a bright sword. At the same time the sweat that balls up on my eyelashes have fallen on my eyelids and covered them with warm and thick coat of layer. My eyes were hindered by this tear and salty coat of layer. I was unable to see. () It was just that moment everything trembled. () I stretched with all my body and soul; the revolver under my hand, I pulled out hard the trigger. The trigger fell out.45 In both novels, in Aylak Adam and in The Stranger, the numbers of actors are few. All of the characters except for the subject are pale and silent. C.; B., Sami, Sadk, Gler, Aye, Feyyaz Eleni, Lawyer, Mrs.Naciye, Kemal, Ahmet, Aunt Zehra, Selma, Erhan, Sacide, Sey are the actors in Aylak Adam.The actors in The Stranger are Meursault, his mother, director Perez, Marie, Celeste, Emmanuel, Salamano, Raymond, Arabs, judge, journalists and the prosecutor. The names except for the subject are given no specic attention to. They are just mentioned at times; these are pale and silent characters that provide realm of reality in a ctive world. The subject in Aylak Adam has got nothing to account for to anybody. He is only busy searching for his realm, he looks for his love, tries to live as he feels. Meursault, too, is like the subject in Aylak Adam. Unlike any other people he is a non-conformist person; each of the two characters has got peculiar, extraordinary, point of standing in their respective societies. They are the people who cannot get on well with others in the society; a manner that never complies with others. C., and Meursault are, in that sense, representatives of antagonism. Both are silent, they either do not have much talk or they have a silent talk within themselves. They do not assert any claim about themselves, never use the word we. Neither Meursault nor C. can get the object they aim at. They are of the opinion that they are not necessarily to speak. Conclusion If a mention is to be made of Yusuf Atlgan and A.Camus, two keyconcepts needs to be taken into consideration: The Absurd and The Revolt. The period, which was just before the world war until 1960s, was the time when peoples world of thought and feelings were reshaped. Absurd philosophy and nihilism are born into the world in this period. In 1942 France is under occupation. The Sisyphus Myth which is the systemic narration of absurd philosophy and The Stranger is published 1942.

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A. Camus, born in 1913, and Yusuf Atlgan, born in 1921 both witness the trials and tribulations of this period. They both are the children of the World War I. They live through the World War II feeling it deeply and vividly. Both think that life is absurd. They both make a mention of absurd but still do not stuck to it a lot; they revolt and question the true nature of life, meaning of life; in a world which they are alien to, they try to make space for the men and they search for their identity. Atlgan and Camus both are in a constant state of exerting an effort to realize the meaning of man, of the age he lives in and make all these crises be realized by others. The writer of The Stranger, in his another novel, Caligula, states: To live is the counterpart of love46. In the Stranger, Marie asks Meursault if he wants to marry her; Meursaults answer is: makes no difference for me47. (Cela mest gale) Meursault never believes in the existence of a real love. Camus, in his work The Fall (La Chute), says: A real love is exceptional thing which could come up only two or three times in a century. The rest is only a futile desire or a real bore48. The subject C., in Aylak Adam, in the same way, is in a constant state of search for a real love but to no avail. In the end he gives in; decides not to talk. He is utterly angry when he hears small-talk about marriage. He likes his friend Kemal but the thought of the possibility he might get married makes him lose heart. He can not help thinking that the only man he is not bored with while together is the man who sooner or later will get married49. Both subjects are hopeless, pessimistic and decide not to talk for those people would not understand them. Aylak Adam starts with a single line of hope and ends in a sentence announcing the loss of hope. The rst sentence in the novel is: All of a sudden a sparkle of hope dawned on me that she would be there among the crowd overowing on the sidewalks; the anxiety in me died away50. The last sentence is: He let himself down as if he gave in to this absurd and unserious order of world which caused him to lose the very thing at the very moment he had just found. () He just shut his mouth; no talk. No need to talk. () He knew; they would not understand51. Aylak Adams subject and the subject in the Stranger, Meursault are not the vivid characters, nor ostensible enough in the novels. C., and Meursault are not like the Balzac characters. Both of them are impersonal individuals devoid of their identity and characters. A Turkish literary critic Enis Batur makes a denition for Yusuf Atlgan as he strolled down the streets like an non-compromising immigrant52. The subject of Aylak Adam C., too, is like an immigrant, an alien in the streets in stanbul. The subject in The Stranger Meursault, too, is an immigrant, an alien in the society with no real friends or a sweetheart. Both just like themselves. For them everybody has a defect. Both complain of the lies on the earth, hate hypocrite, false manners. World is absurd just because of these lies, hypocrisy. For them, man

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cannot be happy in this world. They reject to adjust their lives in view of others. They like to lead a natural, spontaneous mode of life as they desire. In this sense, both are outsiders. They are alien to the society and antagonists. Both have inner worries: They hate the existing state of humanity; they question their being and their existence. Meursault and C. have personalities defeated by the society. The society spares no love for the both. They are accused of being indifferent and being mad. Gler calls C., my mad sweetheart53. His friends, Sadk and Kemal, think of the possibility that C. can at any moment go mad. Sadk makes a denition about C., he has lost all his values, is in search of something to lean against. It will be no surprise if he soon totally goes insane54. Meursault feels that everybody hates him and would like to burst in tears. Jai eu une envie A stupid feeling to cry captured me for I felt how terribly these people hated me55. The novel Aylak Adam is the rst novel in Turkish Literature which distinguishes itself from the earlier novels in that it paves a new road for the type of narrative to pass from the social one to the individual. Aylak Adam, like the Stranger, is a novel of depression. It deeply benets from the absurd philosophy of A. Camus. In both of the novels there are lonely, anti-social, silent-speaking subjects, who are in depression, and who are questioning the meaning of their own being, who are in search of identity. There are the subjects who question the man, the society and the world.
NOTES

See in Ramazan Kaplan, Cumhuriyet Dnemi Trk Romannda Ky, Aka Yay. Ankara, 1997. Yldz Ecevit, Trk Romannda Postmodernist Almlar, letiim Yay. 1.Bask, stanbul, 1990, p.34. 3 A. Lagarde-L. Michard, Les Grands Auteurs Franais du Programme, XXime Sicle, Bordas, Paris, 1962, p.224. 4 Bernard Pluchard-Simon, Proust, Lamour comme vrit humaine et romanesque, Larousse, Paris, 1975, p.59. 5 Lagarde-Michard, op.cit., p.611. 6 Roland Barthes, Yaznn Sfr Derecesi (Le Degr Zro de LEcriture, ev.Tahsin Ycel), Metis Yay.1.Basm, stanbul, 1989, p.15. 7 nci Enginn, Cumhuriyet Dnemi Trk Edebiyat, Dergh Yay. stanbul, 2001, s.312. 8 Gven Turan, Yusuf Atlganda Kl-ty, Kitap-lk, YKY, stanbul, Say: 41, Mays-Haziran, 2000. 9 Arnaud Corbic, Camus, Labsurde, la rvolte, lamour, Les Editions de lAtelier, Paris, 2003, p.50. 10 Ibid, p.28. 11 Yusuf Atlgan, Aylak Adam, YKY (nc Bask), stanbul, 2001, p.153. 12 Ibid, p.153. 13 Ibid, p.159. 14 A.Camus, Ltranger, Gallimard, Paris, 1972, p.175. 15 Atlgan, op.cit. p.159. 16 A.Camus, op.cit. p.120. 17 Atlgan, op.cit. p.41.
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Atlgan, op.cit. p.41. Ibid. p.132. 20 Ibid, p.14. 21 Ibid, p.72. 22 Ibid, p.50. 23 Ibid, p.82. 24 Ibid, p.108. 25 Ibid, p.150. 26 Ibid, p.43. 27 Ibid. p.43. 28 Ibid, p.102. 29 A.Camus, op.cit. p.132. 30 Y.Atlgan, op.cit. p.103. 31 Ibid, p.86. 32 Ibid, p.78. 33 Y.Atlgan, op.cit. p.129. 34 M. P. Schmtt - A.Viala, Savoir-Lire, Didier, Paris, 1982, p.76-77. 35 Nurdan Grbilek, Yer Deitiren Glge, Metis Yay. 2.Basm, 2005, p.49. 36 Atlgan, op.cit. p.42. 37 Ibid, p.49. 38 Ibid, p.10. 39 Ibid, p.15. 40 Ibid, p.38, 39, 77. 41 A.Camus, Ltranger, Gallimard, Paris, 1972, p. 9, 61. 42 John Cruickshank, Albert Camus ve Bakaldrma Edebiyat (ev. Rasih Gran), De Yaynevi, stanbul, 1965, p.211-212. 43 Nurdan Grbilek, op.cit, p.50. 44 Ibid, p.69. 45 A.Camus, Ltranger, Gallimard, Paris, 1972, p.94-95. 46 A.Camus, Caligula, Gallimard, Paris, 1958, p.42 47 A.Camus, Ltranger, Gallimard, Paris, 1972, p.69. 48 A.Camus, D (La Chute, translater. Y.Tura), Varlk Yay. stanbul, 1970, p.57. 49 Atlgan, op.cit. p.155. 50 Ibid, p.9. 51 Ibid, p.159. 52 Enis Batur, Yusuf atlgan, Bir Prol Denemesi, Kitap-lk, YKY, Say;41, stanbul, Mays-Haziran 2000 p.82. 53 Atlgan, op.cit p.73 54 bid,p.156. 55 A.Camus, Ltranger, Gallimard, Paris, 1972,p.140.